The Chinese Regime Purged 33 Military Officers in Just 100 Days

The Chinese military’s Liberation Army Daily has trumpeted the results of its latest offensive against corrupt personnel, including 33 high-ranking officers sacked within a 100-day period.

An April 26 report by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) mouthpiece announced the investigation of three regional and provincial officers. They include Zhan Guoqiao, minister of the Joint Logistics Department in the Lanzhou Military Region, Dong Mingxiang, logistics minister of the Beijing Military Region, and Zhan Jun, the deputy commander of the Hubei Military District.

All three have been variously charged with violating the law or breaching Communist Party discipline.

Within 102 days, the PLA sacked 33 high level officers, highlighting the military as the focus of the Party’s anti-corruption campaign this year. On Jan. 15, the CCP military released names of 16 sacked military officers, and another 14 were revealed on March 2.

Of the over 100 officials at the ministerial or provincial level sacked since Party chief Xi Jinping began the regime’s anti-corruption campaign in 2013, a third of them have come from the military.

The Joint Logistics Department, holding much responsibility for funding, supplies, fuel, and infrastructure, is considered one of the four major authorities in the PLA. It has been particularly hard-hit by Xi’s campaign, with high-ranking officers from five of seven of the PLA’s Military Regions—Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenyang, and now Beijing and Lanzhou—being put under investigation for corruption.

Beijing News reported on April 27 that vice chairman of the Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, Fan Changlong, recently stated that the military should “manage military affairs strictly according to the rule of law,” and “completely eliminate the impact made by the Xu Caihou case.”

Xu Caihou, disgraced former vice chairman of the CMC, was also one of the closest allies of former Communist leader Jiang Zemin. In what became one of the highest profile corruption investigations in PLA history, Xu was detained and put under investigation on suspicion of bribery in March 2014.

Although Xu died from bladder cancer in March 2015 before he could be put on trial, the central authorities have continued investigations into his case.

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